July 10, 2022 - 6:58pm

Miguel’s Farm, Unknown, Nigeria

The pit’s timer ticked in the night silence, like death’s bony finger impatiently tapping against an iron table, waiting for the next move. Hana Miguel, Money Garcia, and Monika Rose waited anxiously around the sealed off well. In less than two minutes, they’d find out whether Kuro and Soji lived. The dumbwaiter that they’d been sending food down stopped coming up after the fourth day. Monika worried that this certainly spelled their demise, but Money reassured her that it probably meant that the boys found the food caches full of non-perishables.

The three of them were almost mummified in bandages, and all shared the same look of anticipation in their eyes. The four days they had to themselves were…confusing. Miguel skipped around, looking for telltale signs of life from his livestock. He was elated when he found the baby goat Bambi inexplicably unscathed. Money hovered around Monika and Miguel, playing the role of a concerned parent, and for once, completely uninterested in his GameBoy. Monika herself started watching WWE, finding comfort in the memories it brought her. It was as if the three of them decided to forget about the grander picture for a while until the pit started ticking.

It ticked. And ticked. And ticked. And ticked.

Finally, it clicked.

As soon as the damned thing swung upon, Kuro shot out of the well, skipping the undoubtedly arduous experience of climbing the rusted rungs of its makeshift ladder. The boy landed on his feet, far from gracefully. He was alarmingly gaunt, draped in all manner of substances. He’d removed his shirt and used it to tie his bloodied machete to his closed hand. Monika rushed to embrace him tightly. Her fingers caressed the back of his head, unbothered by the filth all over him. She could feel his heartbeat against her chest, faintly amused by its quickening pace. He returned the hug with his free hand, and pulled her onto him as he fell backwards from exhaustion.

“Hi,” he blushed, comforted by Monika’s weight on top of him.

“Hey,” she said, her voice hoarse. She pretended not to feel her face reddening.

Money cleared his throat.

“I hate to interrupt, but, where’s—” Monika dismounted Kuro as she felt something horrible emerging from the pit. The sound of overwhelming emptiness she typically associated with blooms was insignificant compared to this. It was as if that sound was swallowed by a darker, more cavernous emptiness, and gave itself form.

Whatever the creature was that slowly ascended set off alarm bells in Money and Miguel’s heads. They didn’t even realize they’d brought out their reinforcements when a blackened hand popped out of the well and clutched onto its solid outer walls. The limestone well began melting underneath the pressure of the hand pushing its owner up.

Soji, steaming and stained, emerged and plopped onto the ground, just as exhausted as Kuro. His mouth had returned to its normal state, save for black and blue goo coating his lips. He groaned.

“Food.” Ignoring his sharp, black-stained teeth and pointed fingernails, Monika approached him angrily and stepped on his chest.

“Idiot! You scared us half to death and all you can think of is food?” The girl ignored how much sense his request made, just happy to tease him again.

~

The sheer amount of fast food sprawled across the dinner table was enough to feed a family of four. And yet, the newly emerged boys ravished it with such devotion, that they were already down to their last burgers and fries.

Finally, showered and draped in fresh clothes, Soji sat back, satisfied. Kuro wiped his mouth and nodded a thanks to the farmer brothers. Monika watched from the kitchen counter with her arms crossed.

“You gonna open the floor for questions now?” She asked.

“Shoot,” Soji replied.

“I’ll go first,” Miguel interrupted, “What did you guys eat? Those food caches had rations for a fourteen and eight year old. Definitely not enough to keep both of you alive.”

The boys shared a quick look at each other before Soji sighed.

“Kuro ate all the rations. I…ate blooms. After they damaged the food elevator—”

“Dumbwaiter,” Monika corrected.

“It’s too early for name calling.” Soji retorted, “The food elevator got damaged and wouldn’t go back up. We saw how some of them ate each other. And, I figured if I’m a bloom, it shouldn’t be a problem if I eat them.”

“Well…was it a problem?” Money asked.

“Yes and no. I began to be able to use my abilities and blighting with greater precision, but now I can’t return some parts of myself to normal. Eating blooms sped up my progression into one.” His pointed canines gleamed.

“I see,” Miguel petted his goat pensively.

“What about you, Kuro? What happened to you?” Monika finally uncrossed her arms and took the last open seat at the dinner table.

Memories of Soji’s bloomed form haunted him. The boy’s red eyes were indistinguishable from those of the creatures they slew.

“Eh. I discovered my technique, I guess.”

“That’s great news!” The girl exclaimed. Money grinned. “What is it?”

“I’m not telling,” Kuro teased with a tired singsong voice.

“I have a question,” Soji raised his hand, then pointed at the corner of the kitchen, “Who is that, over there?” Everyone turned their heads to the empty space he gestured at.

“Are you…delirious?”

“Maybe, but I can feel the atma of two people over there…” he clarified.

“Is he talking about the residual atma from four days ago?”

All of a sudden, Tamara Cain and the man known only as Doc glitched into sight. She appeared timeless, wearing the same black and silver attire that the kids last saw her in. The room jumped.

“Impressive,” she clapped.

Monika silently agreed. That Soji could sense Tamara before she could hear her atma showed how far he’d progressed in such little time. Whatever nightmares that dwelled within the pit appeared to have been well worth it. But what did they pay for it?

“You! We’ve been trying to reach you for days!” Money accused.

“I was busy. There was lots to prepare for tomorrow.” She waved away his concerns.

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Well, let’s see. I had to do a little investigating, I went to see my other students, and I arranged for us to be teachers at the M.I.I.” She listed the items on her fingers.

“Woah, woah, woah…other students?” Soji asked.

“Teachers?!” Miguel raised his eyebrows.

“Not all at once, now. But yes, other students. They’re your seniors who I’ve been training for about eight years now.”

“They’re cool,” Monika assured Soji and Kuro, “especially Noa.”

“They, like everyone in this room, are a part of the plan to destroy the Institute.”

“Who’s we?” Money asked, “Fix your pronouns.”

“Oh, my bad, I guess I’ll just let you get back to farming,” she retorted, gesturing out the window to the now barren land.

“Could have been avoided, if you picked up your phone…”

“Oh, so the babysitter needs a babysitter?”

Money’s wraith, Jump, materialized. That she could open her mouth to mock him after dropping off her little side projects at their farm, subsequently causing its destruction, was more than irksome.

“That’s enough! What do you mean ‘destroy the Institute’? What does that look like, to you?” Miguel intervened.

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“Doc?” Tamara nodded to him. The short, Japanese man opened his briefcase and produced a whiteboard and a marker.

“As I’m sure all of you know, Tamara is impulsive and disorganized,” he started. Rude, the woman thought as the men in the room nodded in agreement, “so I took the liberty of creating a list of our objectives.” He started writing on the miniature whiteboard.

“Item number one, our main goal, is to remove the current Elders of the M.I.I. They are Yasu Rose, Vera Fadel Habib, Dhruv Talia, Edgar Crane, and…Hedeon Cain.” Doc paused to let the room register the implications of that lineup.

“Now, we probably won’t have to kill all of the Elders, but we do have to overpower them. What comes after is up to them.” Tamara cut through the silence.

“Which,” Doc resumed, “brings us to the first point under item one; gaining popularity. The Elders, of course, have the favor of not just the members of the First Families, but of several influential families, politicians, and inadvertently, the billions of people around the world that look up to the Institute.”

“So it’s a game of politics,” Kuro said.

“Exactly. Even if we nameless few succeed in ousting the Elders, it doesn’t come with the loyalty of the people. At worst, it would cause all out war. At best, we’d be the world’s most wanted.”

“So how do you propose we ‘gain popularity’, as you put it?” Miguel asked.

“Point A; Kuro and Monika must join the Saints. Point B; Tamara and Soji will work together to destroy the Devil’s Spine. Point C; undermine trust in the Elders.”

“I know you’re about to ask, so let me just get ahead of that,” Tamara, again interrupted, “Techniques don’t work in the Garden. And there are only eight known Instruments that do work in the Garden. Those that wield these Arias are the ones called Saints. They venture into the Garden often to attempt to destroy the Spine, and as a result have the respect and reverence of maestros everywhere.”

Kuro recalled the picture of that gargantuan spine-shaped tree. How powerful could the Saints and their Instruments be, if they truly believed they had a chance at destroying that thing? If he joined them, could he even make a difference?

“Wait,” Monika added, “the Saints answer to my grandmother. It’ll be hard for any of us to get in.”

“They may answer to Yasu, but they’re chosen and led by Vera. She’ll assess them fairly. Points B and C come directly after Point A. Accessing vital information and the Garden will be much easier once you guys are Saints.” Tamara explained.

“The next main point, still under item one of course, is preparation to face the Elders. There are only two main objectives for this point; find the Hands, and remove the Contract on Tamara.”

“Woah. You guys are throwing a lot of new terms at us. Can we slow down?” Soji rubbed his temple, exasperated. They’d only resurfaced an hour ago, after all. The time spent in the pit was still fresh in their minds.

“I agree. As much as I’m enjoying the coup planning, I just started breathing fresh air again.” Kuro added.

“We’re almost done, I promise,” Tamara said. She understood where they were coming from, but it was imperative that everyone knew what the game plan was.

“May I continue?” Doc asked sarcastically, “Great. I’ll skip over a proper explanation of what the Hands are for now, as removing the Contract may negate the need for them. As it stands, the Contract forced on Tamara prevents her from harming any single member of the Institute. So unless we can get that removed, this plan is already over.”

“Well, how do we remove it?” Kuro asked.

“No clue. That’s something we’re going to have to figure out once you guys get past the Orchestra. There oughta be an Instrument or technique somewhere that can do that. Although…I’m sure killing the person who forced the Contract on me would help.”

“Which is a moot point, because that person is an Elder,” Doc clarified.

“Cool, is that it?” Soji asked.

“Nope. There are still two items on the list. Finding the woman responsible for Soji’s situation, and finding information on Kuro’s dad. The latter is much easier once, again, someone becomes a Saint, but the former…”

“We don’t have to worry about that. She’ll come to me.” Soji said.

“Oh?” Tamara’s interest was piqued, “what makes you say that?”

“Because she needs me. I was thinking about it while we were in the pit. When I fought Victor, he mentioned something about a group. And then he said ‘Daisy should try again’. I think he meant the woman that came to my house. Then I got to thinking about her. She wanted to take me somewhere. She said she’d come back for me. The memories from around when I change are a little fuzzy, but they’ve been coming back to me.”

“Daisy…” Tamara rubbed her chin, searching her memories for a person named Daisy. Dark clouds gathered around her thoughts the harder she searched before she eventually threw her hands up in defeat.

“I have no idea who that is…but it’s good that we have another name to tie to your situation.”

Doc and Miguel shared a look.

“So she’s alive,” they thought in unison. That’d have to be a conversation for another time.

“This group that’s after you is something we’ll keep an eye on,” she assured, “and I believe that’s everything…” She looked to Doc for confirmation. He nodded.

“Lovely! Miguel, come now, we gotta chat about that teacher thing. Everyone else, you have until morning to kick back and relax. It’s gonna be a long haul from then on.” She gestured for the man and his goat to follow her outside.

Money remained leaning against the fridge, smoldering before he stormed out of the room.

Monika and Kuro followed suit, with the girl leading him upstairs. What’s with those two? Soji wondered with a shudder.

“Didn’t I tell you to avoid speeding up the blooming process?” Doc appeared in front of Soji and gently chopped the boy’s forehead.

“Sorry...”

“Don’t apologize to me. You’ve only robbed yourself of time.” A needle appeared over his shoulder as he placed his neat black briefcase on the dinner table next to Soji. From it he produced two thin, black, fingerless gloves that hummed faintly with atma.

“Put these on.”

~

Meanwhile, Kuro sat on the floor of Monika’s loaned bedroom, his head resting gingerly between her legs. From the bed she sat on, she used a pick to undo his cornrows. She took great care to avoid letting atma flow into her hands, lest it mingle with his and burst. The lighting in the room was low, and yet, her concentration tracked each twist, each braid with precision.

“When was the last time you got these redone?”

“It’s…been a while.”

“I can tell,” she laughed.

“I know…how’ve you been, Princess?”

“Princess? Corny…”

“Ah, when we were down there, you came up often. Soji kept joking that you didn’t come because the pit wasn’t fit for maestro royalty.”

She pulled on his hair with a little more strength, eliciting a soft grunt from the boy.

“That’s not true.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

“It’s just…when there are that many blooms, I get scared.”

“Who wouldn’t? Those things are terrifying.”

“But you guys could still do something even though you were afraid. I just froze. I always freeze.”

“I don’t know about Soji, but for me, it’s because I’m way more terrified of losing people. I feel like I have to be around the ones I care about to keep them safe,” Kuro said.

“So what, I need to be scared of something else?”

“Maybe. Only you could know that.”

“Hm. What else am I scared of?”

“I think I’m scared of being alone. Of having nobody next to me. You and Soji are the first friends I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’m afraid of being alone again.”

“I get that. But as long as we’re somewhere, living and breathing, you won’t be alone. The three of us have to look out for each other.” Monika blushed. She picked up the spray bottle next to her, moisturizing the newly undone row of silver-white hair. It’s so pretty.

“So…you talk about me?”

“D-don’t try to deflect, you never answered my question. How are you?”

“Well, let’s see, my aunt and cousin jumped me, then she killed Miguel, then Miguel came back to life and destroyed all the blooms they brought, but then the farm burnt down—”

“Wait, wait, wait. Start from the beginning. Slow down.” The boy’s voice dropped real low. Monika had to take a deep breath before she obeyed.

~

Back in the kitchen, Soji inspected the glove Doc gave him.

“What is it?”

“It’s a custom-made Instrument. Put it on and try blighting.”

The boy fit the glove onto his tired hand. He called up the beastly part of himself that rippled beneath his skin. The glove reacted instantly and shot out a rope of black gauze to mimic a boxer’s wrap around the hand and forearms. He felt the bandages tighten and press the transformation back.

“How…”

“It’s possible to imbue Instruments with techniques, even basic ones. This one mimics the barriers that maestros use to contain blooms. Now try heating up.”

The boy complied. Bright strokes of orange heat lit up along the gloves, creating a symmetrical pattern reminiscent of a circuit along the boy’s arm. The air sizzled.

“As you can see,” Doc explained, “you can still use the abilities that being a bloom gives you without having to blight yourself to use more of it. This should also slow down the eventual progression. Which reminds me…”

The needle floating behind him shot into Soji who yowled when it hit him.

“You’ve jumped to about 22% bloom in your natural state. I know there are situations where you’ll feel like you need to take off the gloves for a power boost. Because of how they suppress the blighting, you’ll probably jump anywhere between five and ten percent if you do remove them to use your abilities. It’s up to you to determine if the situation is worth it.”

“I understand. Thank you so much, Doc!”

“Listen, Soji…you’ll burn away before you reach that woman if you’re not careful. Devotion will empower you, but obsession will devour you. Only a thin line divides the two.” The man didn’t look down at Soji, but rummaged through his breast pocket for his box of cigarettes. His disappointment at its emptiness was palpable.

“I’ll be careful, Doc, I promise.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that. Oh, and one more thing…” The man cracked a rare smile.

~

Even with his eyes closed, foreign fingers and warm water running through his hair, Kuro resisted the Sandman’s call and listened to Monika’s recounting of her days on the farm. When the time to dry his hair came, so too did the end of her story.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you. I wish I — we — could’ve been there for you.”

“It’s not your fault. I think I had to face that by myself. Eventually, I’ll have to face them all.”

Kuro had no idea what to say to that. Consoling her about the fact that she’d likely have to kill members of her family felt…superfluous, among other things. Adding that she wouldn’t be alone when that time came didn’t feel right either.

“Sorry.”

In silence, she gathered his hair to twist it into two thick braids running along either side of the top of his head.

“When we get past the Orchestra, I’ll do your hair properly. I know a style that’ll fit you perfectly.”

The boy looked up at Monika perched on the edge of the bathtub. Her mahogany eyes drew him in, almost rendering him mute.

“Thanks, Princess,” he teased. Monika flicked his forehead.

“That’s not sticking!”

“We’ll see about that.” Kuro grinned as he stood up. He paused at the doorway of the bathroom, tempted to throw in another quip, but decided against it, bidding the girl goodnight instead.

~

July 11, 2022 - 11:18am

Eden City, New Eden, Bir Tawil

The group was quiet as they descended the steps of Tamara’s private jet onto a hangar laden with lavish white aircraft. They’d woken up bright and early, and sat on the plane for roughly five hours and now, rapidly approaching the point of no return. The kids, at Tamara’s suggestion, wore matching black outfits. Cargo pants, compression shirts, and combat boots.

Kuro kept his father’s sheathed chokuto on the right side of his hip, and Money’s machete strapped to the left. Soji trailed behind him, continuously running his fingers across his gloves. Monika walked next to him, fists clenched. This was it. This was the Orchestra.